Linux lab looks to bridge dueling interfaces

BOSTON--Open Source Development Labs is previewing work that attempts to make life easier for software companies by bridging GNOME and KDE, the two competing graphical interfaces most widely used with Linux.

The effort, called Portland Project, began showing its first software tools on Tuesday in conjunction with this week's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo here. Using them, a software company can write a single software package that works using either of the prevailing graphical interfaces.

OSDL and a cooperating group called Freedesktop.org, which is already working on unifying interface issues, plan to release a beta version of the software in May and version 1.0 in June. Ultimately, advocates hope that it will be part of a larger but separate effort called Linux Standard Base, which is designed to make the operating system easier for software companies to use.

Portland Project began as a meeting among developers at OSDL in Portland, Ore., in December, organizers said. KDE and the GNOME Foundation both endorsed the project.

Unlike Windows and Mac OS X, Linux has two major sets of graphical interfaces. This presents people with different items, such as control panels; complicates cut-and-paste operations; and requires programmers to be aware of what underpinnings they're using for elements such as dialogue boxes or pull-down menus.

It's common for software packages with both interfaces to be installed on Linux machines, enabling programs created for either to run smoothly, but that circumstance isn't guaranteed.

Portland Project is working on two ways to gloss over the differences, a set of command-line tools and an application programming interface called DAPI. OSDL, a nonprofit consortium founded in 2000 by computing-industry heavyweights and employing Linux leader Linus Torvalds, began working on desktop Linux issues in 2003.

"Portland is promising because the historical lack of uniformity across KDE and GNOME has made it difficult for ISVs to build a single application that integrates well in both environments," Linux Standard Base chairman Ian Murdock said in an interview. But, he added, the Portland Project is just one step of many that are needed.

The Linux Standard Base plans to add the software libraries of KDE and GNOME, called Qt and Gtk, respectively, to version 3.1 of its standard. That version is scheduled to debut in early May, while version 3.2 due in early 2007 will incorporate the Portland Project's work, Murdock said.

[Zymurgist]

Kudos to FreeDesktop.org

FreeDesktop.org has actually contributed quite a <br />bit to the goal of homogeneity of the desktops. <br /> <br />What this article doesn't really go into is to <br />what the specific issues are that FreeDesktop <br />and the Portland Project are aiming to address. <br />The article also confuses the "GUI" with the <br />desktop environment. <br /> <br />For the uninitiated, the two big desktop <br />environments are GNOME and KDE. They are built <br />atop a network-transparent windowing environment <br />called X11 (Windows users would recognize as the <br />inspiration for Remote Desktop). The two <br />environments are based on two different <br />libraries which are used to render the user <br />interface components -- so they have a somewhat <br />different look and feel. Where they differ most <br />greatly is outside the GUI itself and in the <br />services that they provide for the environment <br />and how and where they store the configuration <br />information (such as layout of menus, colors and <br />icons used, etc.). Applications written for <br />GNOME and KDE will run without an issue in <br />either environment. <br /> <br />A Desktop Environment provides more than just <br />the GUI management, but also virtual filesystems <br />(Windows has this notion, though it's not <br />extensively used), object hosting (think <br />components like ActiveX), media services <br />(architected very different than Windows), <br />notification management, high-level IPC (think <br />ARexx, if you remember that), etc. The <br />environment typically presents the configuration <br />applets (control panels) used to configure the <br />desktop environment (like Windows explorer) and <br />system (services, printers, etc). <br /> <br />Some of the things FreeDesktop has worked out <br />are a standard way of representing the desktop <br />menu layout (think "Start Menu" in Windows) so <br />that KDE and GNOME don't use redundant methods <br />for representing them. The same goes with icon <br />themes, and association of file types with <br />applications (previously, KDE and GNOME stored <br />this information in two different places in two <br />different formats). <br /> <br /> <br />While minor, that sort of thing meant that <br />installing a vendor-supplied application meant <br />installing two sets of configuration files in <br />two different locations. FreeDesktop's solution <br />not only standardizes how the information is <br />stored, but does so in a fashion that is <br />completely application-neutral (i.e., things <br />other than KDE and GNOME could use it). <br /> <br />There are still other minor points of <br />discontinuity between the two, but the two <br />dominant platforms are rapidly closing in on <br />agreement on all of them.

And kudos to Epileptic Manatee

Very informative post. Thank you.